The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (Center) announced $780,000 in grants for organizational improvements to ten arts and cultural institutions from the Center's Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative (PCMI). This year's awards include four project grants and six planning grants. Four first-time grant recipients are among the awardees.
This past year, PCMI revised its program guidelines to reinforce the fundamental connection between strong management practices, outstanding artistry and audience engagement. A grant from PCMI is intended to help organizations improve their management functions in ways that will propel and support continuous improvement in their programming and services to audiences. Through these grants, PCMI hopes to enable recipients to meet the management challenges of an increasingly competitive market and simultaneously develop more dynamic and publically appealing programs. This renewed focus on organizational development as a means to spark programmatic excellence and ingenuity distinguishes PCMI's work from other funding focused on management improvements, and marks a continued commitment on the part of the Center to stimulate and support a vibrant cultural community throughout the five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania region.
Among the organizations funded:
“Research indicates that the quality and relevance of programs is a key factor influencing people's decision to participate in arts and culture events,” said Greg Rowe, Director of Culture Initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “As competition for audiences intensifies, these grants represent investments in the development of ten organizations that have identified or are actively seeking to find ways to ensure that they can continue to deliver a high standard of programs that engage audiences in meaningful ways.”
For the complete list of 2010 grantees and full descriptions of each funded project, please visit Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative's Grants Awarded page.
Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative grants are awarded annually on a competitive basis and provide much needed resources for individuals and organizations from a wide variety of fields to achieve greater organizational health. Grantees are selected by a panel of arts and culture professionals from around the country with experience in various aspects of the management field. For a full list of 2010 panelist names and respective credentials, please download the 2010 Grantee Roster PDF.
Since its inception in 2001, the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative has awarded over $5.3 million in project grant support to those organizations that deliver exceptional programming and outstanding cultural services to people in the five-county region.
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is dedicated to stimulating a vibrant cultural community in the five-county, Southeastern Pennsylvania region. Established in 2005, the Center houses seven funding Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trusts, and through them supports area artists and arts and heritage organizations whose work is distinguished by excellence, imagination, and courage. Each year, the Center's grants make possible more than 800 performances in dance, music, and theatre as well as history and visual arts exhibitions, and other public programs for audiences in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. For more information, visit www.pcah.us.
The Pew Charitable Trusts (www.pewtrusts.org) is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life. It partners with a diverse range of donors, public and private organizations and concerned citizens who share a commitment to fact-based solutions and goal-driven investments to improve society